The Watchers - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

It ain’t easy to make a movie. There are very few Orson Wells out there who can redefine an industry with their very first feature. Most directors don’t swing for the fences their first time out. They’ll make a small feature before they go big. But for Ishana Night Shyamalan, she’s got a hell of a name to live up to. A legacy of some incredible and heartfelt but terrifying thrillers (and a few notable duds) comes packed with the family name. One can’t begrudge Shyamalan: The Next Generation for swinging for the fences, but the esoteric fairytale thrills of The Watchers may have been beyond reach for the first time at bat.

Based on the A.M. Shine novel of the same name (which I haven’t read since a very enthusiastic friend spoiled the twists), our story is about a wayward young woman named Mina (Dakota Fanning). An American living in Ireland, she’s tasked with transporting a rare parrot from her pet shop day job to a zoo, only she finds herself with a broken-down car and lost deep in the woods. But something is following her! As the creatures close in she’s swiftly ushered into a strange concrete bunker with three strangers - Ciara (Georgina Cambell), Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), and Madeline (Olwen Fouéré). Joining hands, together they must stand in front of a large mirror so The Watchers can see them! If Mina ever hopes to survive long enough to escape, she must obey the rules while working to uncover the mystery behind these deadly creatures. 

I love high-concept filmmaking. I love a great premise with tantalizing possibilities and a unique twist. I’m all for this idea of strange deadly creatures that lurk in a secluded forest and watch the people trapped in a bizarre diorama. It’s a clever switch on how we treat pets! We put them in glass boxes to watch and keep for our amusement. Now, what if the same was being done to us by creatures of myth and legend? That is a great idea for a movie! Unfortunately, The Watchers didn’t work out. Conceptually it’s there, but the final execution is a long clunky mess.

Now, I never read the 2021 novel. As previously mentioned I had a friend basically spoil a lot of it so I never felt compelled to read it. But I did think it could work as a kind of folk horror movie. So, given the talent involved, I went into Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut with some hope that she could pull it off and carve out her own industry legacy. Unfortunately, the final product misses the mark. There are sparks of creativity and some set pieces are brilliantly executed, but the film struggles to maintain suspense when it’s frequently undercut by maddeningly long clunky exposition sequences and an ill-conceived nonsensical epilogue. 

In truth, the film doesn’t start out on the best foot first. A traditional monster movie “first victim” opening, we see an unknown man running through the woods, obviously trying to escape from something. From what, we don't yet know. But when his plan fails and he sees the creatures for himself, his panic and terror gives way to a calmingly confused “...that’s not possible…” before he’s dragged away. There’s no shock, there’s no horror or fear of what he’s seeing off-screen, just a bizarre “huh, well that’s weird…” Imagine the girl at the opening of Jaws feeling that first nibble and not panicking but instead saying “well… that wasn’t so bad!” before screaming her guts out and disappearing under the water.

While the following moments work well to rebuild some of that suspenseful momentum of unseen horror, The Watchers frequently stops all action for excessively clunky exposition. These stops not only halt any momentum but also telegraph later twists like waving giant semaphore flags. Worse this isn’t a single occurrence, it happens multiple times throughout the film. Sometimes it’s a short sequence of convenient plot armor, but the worst reveal is an interminable video log dump in the second act. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s even more clunky longwinded exposition to get us to the climax. Exposition is fine, it’s necessary, but show us more than tell us and then know when to withhold so some secrets lead to big surprises and keep the audience engaged instead of looking at their watches. 

There’s a great big cinematic concept at the heart of The Watchers. This should work as a solid little fairytale spook flick. But this one needed more time to cook in pre-production. Our cast does their best to bring life to their respective roles, and Ishana Night Shyamalan displays a deft visual touch while having a solid hand for personal intimate moments. Another draft or two, a cleaner edit, and a trust that the audience isn’t stupid and needs to be handheld through reveals would have gone far to make a better film. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
The Watchers creep their way on to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray from Warner Bros in a single-disc 4K + Digital set. Pressed on a BD-66 disc, the disc is housed in a standard black case with identical slipcover. The disc loads to an animated main menu with traditional navigation options along the bottom of the screen.

Presented in 2160p Dolby Vision HDR (with HDR10), The Watchers makes for a beautiful but very dark viewing experience. And when I say “dark” I mean it! This one will likely stress the nits for the average consumer setup for those deep dark creepy scenes. If your setup is in a room without sunlight you should do well. That said, most of the time darkness shouldn’t be an issue, but there are some key scenes where it can be damned difficult to make out what's happening if your room is too bright. Daylight scenes are immaculate offering a full range of detail for our character’s faces and costumes. The dull sulpher lamp yellow light of the compound obviously skews colors but it leads to some interesting shadow play. The Dolby Vision grade goes a long way toward helping fine important details stand out in those darkest scenes. Primaries are nicely captured, again for those daylight scenes and moments not in the yellow light of the bunker. Black levels are managed well, giving plenty of creepy shadows for our creatures to move about in. It’s not always the most visually arresting film but it makes for a nice 4K presentation.

On the audio front, we have an effective and moody Atmos track to play with. Like the film, the audio is at its best when things are quiet letting our titular critters make their creepy noises throughout the soundscape. While the mix keeps a lot of the main activity to the front/center channels, surrounds and heights see some clever usage. When our cast is out foraging in the woods, the sound of birds, or creaking trees keeps the mix active helping build that tension. A sequence where Fanning’s Mina explores one of the Watcher’s holes, the surround channel space tightens and heights come alive beautifully. Other sections where the film feels in a hurry to just get through a scene dialog can sound inorganic, the score can just be loud, and the mix can sound flat. It probably won't spark many as the best Atmos mix ever, but when it works, it's damn fun!

On the bonus features front, there’s not a lot here. The featurettes we do have offer some interesting input into the behind-the-scenes goings on of the film. The individual segments have a feel like a glorified EPK segment, but we do get some focused detail about specific aspects of the film. The funniest is the extended footage of the fake reality show, so that’s pretty entertaining. It’s not a lot but it’s not nothing either.

• Welcome to the Show: The Making of The Watchers (HD 8:50)
• Creating The Watchers (HD 5:02)
• Constructing the Coop (HD 6:16)
• Ainriochtan and the Irish Fairy Folklore (HD 4:22)
• Lair of Love (HD 9:29)

The Watchers falls into the trap of so many high-concept ideas. The concept is there, but the final execution didn’t measure up. Not intimately knowing the novel, I don’t know if the film was trying to be too slavish to the source, but the frequent and extremely dull patches of exposition upend the suspenseful nature of the film while telegraphing the big reveals long before they happen. Hopefully Ishana Night Shyamalan can work some magic for her sophomore feature because there's clearly some talent that's been passed down genetically. On 4K UHD, The Watchers scores a pleasing Dolby Vision transfer and a respectable Atmos audio mix. Bonus features are brief but interesting. For me, the movie just wasn’t there and it’s hard to recommend this disc even for the curious. This is where streaming is very convenient as this one is ultimately For Fans Only